
Class P '^ - 

Book_JVl>LZ 




i 



J 



NORFOLK 

VIRGINIA 



"THE GOLDEN GATE OF THE ATLANTIC SEABOARD" 
"THE SUN-RISE CITY BY THE SEA" 



COMMERCIAL :: INDUSTRIAL 3 3. 

HISTORICAL ^5^^5^ 

GEOGRAPHICAL ' 
SOCIAL 



^ 



ISSUED BY, AND PRESENTED WITH 
THE COMPLIMENTS OF 

THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 

(OFFICIAL) 
OF THE CIT^■ OF NORFOLK, VA. 



THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF 1910 

HARVEY M. DICKSON, Presideni . . . President Dickson Lumber Company 

R. L. FORREST, Vice-President R. L.Forrest &. Co., Real Estate 

\V. P. DODSON. Treas., District Manager Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company 
uADDv- u XDir-c c . I Vicc-President of W . H . H. T R ICE &, CO., Real Estate 

HARR\ H. TRICE, Secretary ] President Atlantic Trust and Deposit Company 

PHILIP E. YEATMAN, Assistant Secretary 

J. S. BARRON Attorney-at-Law 

E. F. JAKEMAN Jeweler 

L. FEUERSTEIN . . . . . Feuerstein Ice Co. and Fish Packers 

D * DAMi'c .' Editor and Publisher Galaxy Magazine 

B.A.BANKS . . . . , Attorney-at-Law 

PUBLISHED August, mcmx 



COMPILED BY B. A. BANKS 




< 

El) 
H 

o 

Q 
Z 

< 

a. 
'A 
z 
z 



•A 
o 

o 

2; 



zA Word Prefatory 




O HANDLE a great subject in a small way and yet do it justic* 
is not an effort of facility. The Xorfolk of 1910 is a great sub- 
ject and the Greater Xorfolk of the early future is still greater. 
In the pages which follow both subjects are treated by para- 
graph and picture with such adequacy as the limitations allow. 
A comprehensive review of any single item in the sum of Nor- 
folk's credit, natural, industrial, or commercial, might easily 
fill a book the size of this, so that a general survey is the most to be 
expected from the few pages or paragraphs herein accorded it. The 
object has been to throw upon the canvas a series of massed pictures, 
a moving panorama, as it were, in which the details are brought out and 
emphasized with the distinctness permissible in so extensive a field. In 
this form it is believed the work will be more acceptable to the average 
busy American reader. It has been prepared with the intention of making 
it readable, and with the expectation that every pei-son it reaches will 
read it through. For this reason there have been omitted forbidding 
columns of details, trivial facts, and masses of statistical reports, in 
which none but those directly concerned are interested, thereby dealing 
with matters of veritable importance excluding tiresome trivialities. 

While due regard and space has been gi\en to the salient facts, 
figures and statistics of the city, full consideration has been accorded 
matters of equal importance, and for this reason the work is lifted above 
the average quality of such advertising to the higher planes of instruction 
and literature. Social, historical, geographical Norfolk is equally as im- 
portant and interesting as statistical Norfolk, and the attention given to 
both alike, together with the copious photographic reproductions, renders 
the work one of enduring character, a modest monument of the Norfolk 
of today to which the pilgrims of the future may turn with pleasure and 
profit. 

Norfolk is a genuine city of opportunity, and to let these opportuni- 
ties be known is the main object of this compilation. Here Nature and 
Industry have met in friendly alliance to strive for the commercial pres- 
tige of the South Atlantic coast. Not only is Norfolk a natural point of 
assembly and distribution, but it is also a point of production, conditions 
which are fast bearing her to her destiuy as a metropolis of the South. 
Always, heretofore, a city of substantial enterprises, the phenomenal era 
of growth and prosperity she is now experiencing is set forth in the pages 
which follow. 

This work is pubUshed and circulated by the Industrial Commission, 
an official adjunct of the Norfolk City Councils, composed in part of mem- 
bers of that body, together with some of the representative business men 
of the community. The Commission invites communications from com- 
panies or individuals of other sections who are looking for new homes or 
business opportunities. To such, on behalf of the city of Norfolk, the 
Commission ex-tends its greeting and a welcoming hand, with the assurance, 
that so far from any exaggeration herein of the claims of this section, they 
will find that the half has not been told. The Commission will take 
pleasure in replying to all communications, giving such information, 
advice, or suggestions as the case may require. Literature containing 
detailed information of special subjects «-ill be furnished on application. 

Respectfully and cordially yours, 
THE INDUSTRLIL COOHSSION OF NORFOLK. VA. 



THE "CRADLE OF THE NATION" 

HE name "Norfolk"' possesses a talismanic potency to 
call up pictures of the early colonial period. Its en- 
vironment was the cradle of the great nation of which 
it is today so small a fraction. The birthplace of 
Anglo-Saxon American civilization lies some 30 miles 
from Norfolk up the majestic James River. Jamestown, as it was 
called by the first English settlers in honor of the reigning Eng- 





The City Hall and Court House 



lish monarch, is the most sacred and interesting spot upon the 
American continent. Its story is certainly the most familiar of 
our history, for with the names of Jamestown and Virginia are 

5 



entwined those of Raleigh, Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, 
and those English maids "so pure and incorrupt," who were 
the maternal ancestors of the men who laid the foundations of 
the massively magnificent edifice of the United States. 

It was at this point that the first negro slaves 
were landed from a Dutch vessel. Here occurred the first civil 




Commercial Place and Confederate Monument 



uprising on the continent — Bacon's Rebellion; and here, cen- 
turies later, the same soil was consecrated by the blood of the 
soldiers of the Confederacy. 

A delightful trip of a few hours from Norfolk 
through enchanting scenery of land and sea brings one to this 
interesting spot. 




THE AWAKENING. 

O FAR as American cities go, Norfolk is an ancient 
place, indeed one of the oldest in the nation. The first 
charter granted to Norfolk was issued in 1736, so that 
the city is now well advanced in its second century. 
Its slow growth during its centuries of existence is 
even more amazing than the wonderful progress of New York 
during the same period. Every natural feature on which the 
greatness of New York has been based finds its equal or su- 
perior in the case of Norfolk. The majestic harbor of Hamp- 
ton Roads is the best on the Western Continent, and a com- 
merce quadruple that of New York's at present would not 
crowd it. In proximity to the richest section of the country 
Norfolk has decidedly the advantage of New York, and its cli- 
mate is certainly more moderate and equable. Considered as 
sea-ports, bidding for the commerce of the world, the advan- 
tages are decidedly on the side of Norfolk. Nevertheless the 
present reveals a vast disparity between these cities. Equally 
blessed by nature — to say the least — this disparity is one of 
the most surprising historical and commercial facts of the age. 
Ill the beginning the destiny of Norfolk was the same as that 
of New York and it is so now. The fulfillment in the one case 
is but a guarantee of the other. The retardation of Norfolk 
has been due to many causes with which we are not here con- 
cerned. Sufficient to say that these causes have been mainly 
political and that only of late years have they been evacuated 
of all force. While under their spell the city has apparently 
been content to live in its past and bask in the light of the "old 
regime." Now that the wounds of war have healed and the 
bridge of national fellowship and good-will rebuilt, Nor- 
folk has taken a wonderful stride forward and foots the 
threshold of the twentieth century a friendly but formidable 
rival of her great sister cities of the North. 

In the short space of only a single decade a new 
and splendid city has been added to the old. From a dreamy 
old Southern town, indifferent to and even contemptuous of 
the noise and stir about her, she suddenly has her pride aroused, 
and lo— A TRANSFORMATION! 

NORFOLK'S STRIDE FORWARD. 

Norfolk possesses in a superior degree the com- 
pelling combination of conditions and circumstances to build 
up a great metropolis. Lying in the very center of the great 
commercial zone it holds a strategic position as a favored point 
on the line of least resistance. The extent of territory tribu- 



tary to Xorfolk is well nigh continental. The environment of 
the citv is one of the richest agricultural districts of the nation. 
Xorfolk feeds herself and is one of the largest contributors to 
the feeding of Xew York and other dependent places. Manu- 
factories are locating, and will continue to locate here by reason 
of superior advantages of entr\" and distribution. The excel- 
lence of the climate, together with natural beauty of environ- 
ment, offers surpassing opportunities for health and pleasure 
seekers and homemakers, and these considerations, equally 
with the commercial, are gaining rapid recognition throughout 
the countr\-. 




St. Vinxext's Hospital 



It is only within the last decade that the alluring 
advantages of this section have gained wide outside attention. 
and the results are to be seen in the facts and statistics of the 
wonderful for^vard stride the city has taken. Hardly as yet 
underway, this great movement already gives assurance of the 
"Greater X'orfolk" of the very near future. — "the Queen City 
of the South," a rival of the greatest in the land. 




o 

o 
a 
in 



H 

o 

m 
Pi 

ca 

z 

o 



2; 

H 

o 

H 

<! 

H 



SOLID BASIS OF NORFOLK'S PROSPERITY. 

To the advancement of a community there are 
numerous causes, but the firmest foundation of prosperity is 
built upon agriculture and commerce. In sufficient measure 
either will alone make a community great, but, as in the case of 
Norfolk, when there is combination of these economic factors, 
the condition is commanding. The section in which Norfolk is 
located, generally known as ''Tidewater Virginia," is the most 
fertile in the State and ranks with the best lands anywhere. 
Norfolk is a seaport which produces a considerable portion of 
the exports which leave its wharves, but, in addition it is the 
legitimate clearing house for the immense section westward 
to the Mississippi and these are the potential elements behind 
the prosperity of the city and section. 

PARADISE OF THE SMALL FARMER. 

Genial climatic conditions above a generous soil 
permit of continuous farming and two crops a year is the rule. 
The numerous steamship and railroad lines of Norfolk are 
mainly engaged in carrying the products of the section to the 
Northern markets. Fortunes are being made yearly by the 
truckers of this vicinity, many of whom are from the Northern 
and Western States. The man of agricultural inclination with 
small means can find no better investment for his energy and 
capital than a farm in Tidewater Virginia accessible to the Nor- 
folk market. 

A LAND AND SEA OF PLENTY. 

Confining the list of "home products" to the food 
stuff produced or gathered within a radius of twenty-five miles 
having Norfolk for its center, we find a quantity, a quality, and 
a diversity not excelled by any equal section on the planet. The 
truck farms yield an abundant and varied supply of vegetables, 
from the aristocratic asparagus to the plain but potential 
potato. Among the products of the soil may be enumerated 
cotton, corn, wheat, oats, hay, tobacco, all vegetables. The 
section is a very paradise of flowers and the nursery business 
is one of the great and growing industries. Pasturage of a su- 
perior quality is afforded for cattle and sheep rearing, and the 
poultry of the adjoining county of Princess Anne has a high 
reputation in the Northern markets. 

10 



TRIBUTARY TERRITORY. 

The influence of a city is measured by the control 
it exerts over contiguous territory. The extent of this terri- 
tory, its fertility, its mineral wealth, its population, is the meas- 
ure of the force and vitality of its focusing point. In this re- 
spect Norfolk can lay claim to a tributary territory fully as im- 
portant as that which has built up Chicago. The agricultural 
and manufacturing activity of 21,000,000 people lies within 




U. S. Custom House 

twentv-four hours of this city. Not only is she in the great 
zone of National activity, but she is also on the drift line of 
world commerce and affairs. The expansive growth of the 
South during the past twenty years has not been equaled by 
any other section of the country, and Norfolk is the center of 
this movement and Hampton Roads the grand focusing point 
to which the golden stream will flow in ever increasing volume. 
In this great section of the United States the growth of city 
and country goes hand in hand— the whole section is developing 
and Norfolk is the grand center of the development. 

11 



SEA FOOD. 

Some 15 varieties of fish are found in the waters 
adjacent to Norfolk. The Virginian coast waters supply the 
bulk of the sea food consumed throughout the Northern States 
which may indicate the plentitude of this product in the city of 
Norfolk. The fish range from the small but delicate "spot'' to 
the giant "blue fish," which latter weighs an hundred pounds 




Virginia Bank and Trust Co., Granby and Main Sts. 

and over. The "blue fish" has never yet had its praises properly 
sounded. A properly seasoned "blue fish stew" is in the 
writer's opinion one of the very finest dishes to set before the 
king or anybody else. Crabs in Norfolk are as common as po- 
tatoes and quite as cheap. Clams and shrimps are plentiful, 
and the renowned Lynnhaven oyster, the brag delicacy of the 
fine hotels and restaurants of other places, is a mere incident 
in the Norfolk menu. 

12 



p^ 







14 



. r 



rr 



* > 



ir-' 'E6** 



s6 



«» 




5ES5^' 



CC«s 



rr 






TT r r 



» ^ " :p! rA^ '';^ 'f^ Tr^ 

111 .III 11 Hi li IIS 




Bank of Commerce Building 




THE IMPERIAL CHESAPEAKE. 

N THE following poetic language a writer has de- 
scribed the coast section of Virginia contiguous to 
Norfolk. Ordinarily descriptions of this kind would 
be out of place in a purely advertising booklet, but in 

this case it is but the plain statement of facts and as such we 

tender it: 

"Approaching — by either land or sea that portion 
of the Atlantic Seaboard bisected by the 37th parallel of lati- 
tude, we come to a region where dame Nature seems to rest in 
raptured contemplation of her own rich and varied charms. 
Here, in kindest mood, reposeful in her fair estate, she medi- 
tates upon a scene 

"Where the tmts of the earth and the hues of the sky 
In color though varied, in beauty may vie, 
And the purple of ocean is deepest in dye; 

and calls upon the rampant elements, at this her shrine serene, 
to cease their wantonings. Tumultuous winds and turbulent 
waves, forgetful of contention and bearing incense for an offer- 
ing, tread here with reverential step, and in this land of golden 
mean, by whose reposeful shores the tranquil waters flow, for 
wanton deeds done in a wilder clime they yield atonement. 

"Within this hospitable zone that royal daughter 
of old Ocean, the Imperial Chesapeake Bay, entwines in fond 
embrace her thousand arms about the enamored land, and from 
this happy union there is born the multitudinous beauties of 
shore and sea for which the ocean frontage of Virginia is famed 
throughout the Nation. In endless panorama of delightful 
forms the shore-line stretches its enchanting prospect, and at 
a point surpassing, upon the choicest spot of a most choice lo- 
cation, the Greater Norfolk of the twentieth century is rapidly 
rising." 

14 



COMMERCIAL NORFOLK. 

A \eaiiy increase of trade and a constant exten- 
sion of trade territory are marked features of Norfolk's pro- 
gress. So important is the retail and wholesale local and trib- 
utary trade that outside manufacturers and the great jobbing 
houses of the North either establish headquarters in this city 
or keep their best men here. Salesmen for Norfolk houses 
help to materially swell the army of drummers, and these may 
be found in cA'ery section of the South and A\'est competing 
successfully with the agents of other jobbing centers upon their 




View of Ghent From Bridge— A Venetian Prospect 



own ground. The Gulf States and the Southeastern States are 
slowly but surely becoming tributary to Norfolk enterprise. The 
reputation of Norfolk as a jobbing center is being supplemented 
and reinforced all along the line, and within the next decade she 
will undoubtedly take Baltimore's place as The Great Em- 
porium of the Chesapeake. To enumerate the products han- 
dled by the jobbers and wholesale houses of Norfolk would 
necessitate the repetition of the list of nearly every commodity 
known to the trade. 

16 




NORFOLK'S SILVER MACE 



One of Norfolk's most valued 
relics, an unique fragment from 
the colonial period, is the ancient 
and honorable silver mace, pho- 
tographic reproduction of which 
appears upon this page. This 
fine piece of the silversmith's 
craft weighs 104 ounces, and is 
made in six sections, which, when 
screwed together, gives a total 
length of 4 3 inches. The top is 
slightly raised and extended and 
under the open work for the 
crown appear the royal arms of 
Great Britain in the reign of 
George II. The emblems of Eng- 
land and Scotland, France and Ire- 
land occupy three of the panels 
of the bowl, while the fourth con- 
tains the combined quarterings 
of Great Britain. These embel- 
lishments comprise the rose, this- 
tle, fleur-de-lys, and the harp, the 
emblems of these countries, each 
surmounted by a small crown. The 
bowl is surmounted by an open 
crown and above this is a globe 
capped with a standing cross. 

The following inscription ap- 
pears around the base of the bowl. 

The Gift of the Hon'ble Robert 

Dinwiddie, Esq'r, 

Lieu't Governour of Virginia, 

To the Corporation of Norfolk, 1753 

The official trade mark, a lion 
rampant, attesting to the stan- 
dard quality of the metal, appears 
in several places, and also the 
initials F. W., which are believed 
to stand for the name of Fuller 
White, silversmiths of Noble 
street, London, a firm of that day 
engaged in the making of official 
emblems under royal sanction. 

Norfolk's mace is in a fine state 
of preservation and is the most 
justly prized relic in its posses- 
sion, giving as it does a distinc- 
tion and a dignity to the city 
which must increase as the his- 
torical prospects lessen. A care- 
ful research by a Norfolk citizen 
fairly warrants the assertion that 
no other city of the American 
Union possesses this particular 
emblem of royal authority and 
that the only other in existence 
in this country is the State mace 
of South Carolina, now carefully 
guarded in the capitol at Colum- 
bia. 



Copyrighted by J H. Faber, 1909 

City Mace 




THE BANKING BUSINESS OF NORFOLK. 

HE pulse of a city's prosperity is felt at the counter of 
the Clearing House. The history of a city's banks 
is a summary of the city's progress and the best me- 
dium for gauging its importance. In the ultimate of 
things commercial and industrial, the bank is the arbiter. It 
decides the future of enterprises, its decisions being the passport 
of the financial and commercial world. Its credit is the stimu- 
lant to healthy enterprise, its ban the restriction to extravagant 
schemes. AVhile very much alive to the business of this com- 
munity and the opportunities of Norfolk, the banking business 




View of Inner Hakbok 

of this city is characterized above all else by methods of sanity 
and conservatism. Responsive to the legitimate demands of 
business, it is a fact capable of demonstration that the care- 
ful, yet liberal policy of her financial institutions has been a pow- 
erful factor in the growth of Norfolk. In ten years the de- 
posits of Norfolk banks have increased over 200 per cent. This 
is a splendid showing and indicates above any other item the 
healthy financial growth of the city. The loaning potentialities 
of a bank depend upon its deposits, and it is in the loan depart- 
ment that the bank enters as a propulsive factor in the business 

world. 

In methods, facilities, lodgment and equipment, 
the banks of Norfolk will bear comparison with the great insti- 

19 



tutions of the larger cities. Their influence extends throughout 
the South and inspires confidence and security in every section. 
The financial institutions of Norfolk are anxious 
and willing to lend comfort and credit to enterprises of merit. 
For the prosperity of this community a major portion of the 
credit is due the banks. Their absolute solvency and healthy 
conditions attest that the factors of safety and legitimate busi- 
ness methods have been matters of careful solicitude. Liber- 
ality to business enterprise has functioned equally with the 




MoNTicELLO Hotel 

protection of depositors and vigilant wardenship over every 
trust committed to their care. 

The following table, in which the Portsmouth 
banks have been included because the two communities are 
practically one, will indicate the solid basis upon which the fi- 
nancial and commercial growth of Norfolk rests. These fig- 
ures reveal in condensed form a very gratifying and remarkable 
condition of present prosperity, and a high guarantee of its 
continuance. 

20 



NORFOLK A CONVENTION CITY. 




III^^ manner in which Xorfolk has on numerous occa- 
sions handled and cared for exceptional!}' large 
crowds of strangers, has given her a reputation as 
a Convention City. During the Jamestown Exposi- 
tion an attendance of twenty thousand strangers 
daily was nothing unusual, yet the arrangements and the hotel 
accommodations were adequate for the care of even a greater 
number. Prior to the Exposition numerous fine hotels had 
been erected to meet the anticipated requirements of a great 
world's fair. These arrangements, as it turned out, were far in 
excess of any subsequent Exposition demands, and the citv, 
upon the closing" of the great fair, found herself, size and popu- 
lation considered, the best hotel city in the United States. 

A half a dozen commodious and palatial hotels were added 
during the Exposition period to the sum of Norfolk's hostelries, 
and in the matter of hotel accommodations the city is more 
than well provided. This was demonstrated upon the occasion 
of the "x\tlantic Deeper A^'aterways Convention," held at Xor- 
folk November 17-21, 1909, when President Taft spent a day 
in the city. There were many hundred delegates besides mem- 
bers of their families and friends, yet every individual was com- 
fortably cared for without in the least crowding or disarranging 
the hotel accommodations of the city. 

Therefore, in the important item of accommodation of 
strangers, Norfolk is a Convention City second to none in the 
Nation. 

Certainly in the items of natural interest, in its man}' adja- 
cent seaside resorts and also historical scenes, Norfolk is a Con- 
vention Citv second to none. Convention delegates invariably 
seek to combine pleasure with their business and in Norfolk 
they find the facilities unrivalled. 

The erection of the new Norfolk Con\'ention Hall, with 
a seating capacity of 7,000 people, and to cost some $150,000.00, 
plans of whicti are under olTficial consideration, will, when 
comjDleted, supply the one sing'le deficiency in the sum of Nor- 
folk's advantages as a first-class cit}' for con\'entions. 

21 



NORFOLK'S INCOME AND CAPITAL. 



HE source of a community's wealth may be inherent, 
or contributory, or both. Norfolk is blessed both ways 
and especially in the former respect, among the items 
of which may be enumerated the vast agricultural 
wealth produced here, the products of the manu- 
factories, the gross earnings of labor, and the immense yearly 
sums expended here for the maintenance of the Navy Yard, 





The Norfolk Male Academy, Erected in 1840 

military posts, and fortifications, all of which represent in the 
aggregate the steady income of the city. Hampton Roads is 
the great point of rest and rendezvous for the American Navy, 
and the streets of Norfolk are constantly enlivened by the pres- 
ence of hundreds of Uncle Sam's seamen who find their pleas- 
ure and spend their money freely within her gates. Upon 
this solid foundation of inherent wealth and income the great 
contributory factors find a double security. In the generous 
combination with which Norfolk is blessed he who runs may 
read her present prosperity and her assured greatness. 

22 




a 
u 

z 

a 
S3 
a 

hj 
o 

b 

o 
2; 

O 

o 

O 



Norfolk's features of excellence comprise : 

Geographical location. 

Accessibility to the greatest fields of natural wealth. 

Meeting place of the land and ocean highways. 

Unexcelled distributive center and facilities. 

Food supply abundant, diversified and cheap. 

Opportunities for industrial, commercial, and trade expansion unlimited. 

Conservative financial methods. 

Investigate these claims ! 



THE BANKS 

Statement Compiled from January, 1910, 



RESOURCES 

NORFOLK Loans Banking House Cash and 

and and Due 

NAME Investments Real Kstate from Banks 

National Bank of Commerce $4,477,662.82 1325,000.00 $771,268.20 

Norfolk National Bank 4,017.914.35 85,000.00 867,450.29 

Citizens Bank 2,470,398.97 200,78125 S99,185.97 

Norfolk Bank for Savings and Trusts... 1,252,008.39 29.201.08 92,335.51 

Virginia Bank & Trust Co., I nc 1,386,342.23 213,500.00 259,000.00 

Merchants & Mechanics Bank 1,069,540.87 42,066.39 129.365.73 

Marine Bank 671,872.37 33,037.50 124,530.09 

Merchants & Planters Bank 435,706.54 11,085.64 52.991.35 

Seaboard Bank 429.849.36 13,924.34 87,213 34 

Bank of Norfolk 372,907.29 15,189.84 105,770.49 

Mercantile Bank 282,992.41 9,669.49 33,388.22 

Peoples Bank & Trust Co 204,506.87 5,784.67 67,571.00 

Savings Bank of Norfolk 137,497.00 980.00 13,294.00 

Gideon Savings Bank 14,647.86 1,500.00 2,389.92 

PORTSMOUTH 

Merchants & Farmers Bank 1,236,779.29 25,000.00 244,895.00 

Bank of Portsmouth 630,400.63 50,010.66 98,198.34 

Bank of Tidewater 259,671.74 39,040.97 

First National Bank , 245,000.00 45,000 00 

Totals |19,595,69S.99 $1,061,730.86 $3,432,888.42 



Norfolk is a city with a Glorious Past, a Splendid Present, and a Magnificent 
Future. She holds these circumstances with equal esteem. Her past acclaims 
her future and her present assures it. 



Within a period of twelve months some sixteen million tons of freight, 
valued at nearly seven hundred millions of dollars, is handled at Norfolk's 
harbor, yet every indication gives the assurance that the next generation will 
look out upon a commerce and scene of industrial activity to which the present 
will seem a feeble traffic. 



OF NORFOLK 

Reports to Comptroller of the Treasury 



LIABILITIES 

^iirn1n>i anrl Re-DiscOlllltS 

Totals Capital Profit Deposits Circulation and 

Bills Payable 

$5,573,93L02 $1,000,000.00 1645,236.03 $4,646,789.00 ?!, 000.000,00 $400,000.00 

4,970,364.64 1,000,000.00 629,033.21 4,465,000.00 1,000.000.00 350,000.00 

3,070,366.19 300,000.00 373,255.08 2,502,900.00 225,000.00 

1.373.544.98 100,000.00 214,976.42 1,548,573.93 

1,858,842.23 600,000.00 118,000.00 1,101,000.00 80,000.00 

1.240.972.99 25,000.00 116,654.38 1,209,539.60 

829,439.96 110,000.00 202,870.36 634,469.60 20,000.00 

499.783.53 50,000.00 63,643.45 436,004.18 

530,987.04 100,000.00 17,622.24 453,622.00 40,350.00 

493,867.62 100,000.00 28,171.62 363,286.00 34,000.00 

326,050.12 100.000.00 14,332.83 192,159.64 23,979.40 

277.862.54 50,000.00 18,851.13 209,218.01 

151,771.00 35,600 00 12,806.00 131,342.00 

18,537.78 7,445.00 12,720.56 1,000.00 



1,506,674.29 51,500.00 243,300.00 1,287,983.00 

778,609.63 100,000.00 91,905.97 659,980.53 25,000.00 

298,712.71 60,000.00 10,573.38 191,133.28 40.000.00 

290,000.00 100,000.00 5,500.00 190,000.00 37,500.00 



$24,090,318.27 $3,889,545.00 $2,806,732.10 $29,235,721.36 $2,037,500.00 $1,239,329.40 



Norfolk is a Southern City but above all a patriotic American city. She 
has no sectional feelings and has long since passed the "reconciliation" period. 
She holds with equal pride — Virginia, the South, and the Nation. 




NORFOLK REAL ESTATE. 

T is a fact worth recording that during the panics of 
the past, property values of Norfolk suffered less 
fluctuation or disturbance than in any other city of 
the United States. Panics may come and go, but the 
realty values of Norfolk stand solid and impregnable. 

In many of the "brag" cities recent disastrous 
panics knocked the bottom out of real estate values, as many 
unfortunate investors, some of whom are in Norfolk today, 
can sadly testify. But in solid, substantial old Norfolk, which 
has rarely hitherto had a word to say for herself, not only did 
property values hold their own, but speculators were buying 
and selling to their advantage right in the midst of the worst 
general depression. 

No better test of the stability of a community 
could be applied, and the manner in which Norfolk has re- 
peatedly stood that test is a commercial and financial fact that 
commands attention. 

COMMANDING POSITION OF NORFOLK. 

The disintegrating forces of panic and National 
depression are powerless to prevail against the impregnable 
situation on which Norfolk has been reared, a location above 
and about which the kindly elements have engaged in friendly 
conspiracy to dower with manifold blessings. The tributary 
ocean laves her feet, and behind there lies the boundless wealth 
of a rich continent which in coming years, by virtue of necessi- 
ty, must pay at the gates of Norfolk a generous toll. 

Just so sure as trade and commerce tend to the 
line of least resistance, just so sure will the port of Norfolk 
become one of the greater and perhaps the greatest upon the 
American Atlantic coast. Her situation possesses in trans- 
cendent measure the compelling combination of circumstances 
and conditions to build up a great commercial and industrial 
emporium. 

Such in brief is the sure and solid foundation upon 
which Norfolk is built, this is the vital element of her progress, 
and this it is which secures her realty values against the attacks 
of sustained or transitory panics. To paraphrase the poet, 

"The city stands serene and glorious 
O'er all the ills of fate victorious." 

26 



GREATER NORFOLK. 




HE greater and grander Norfolk has arisen during 
the last twelve years. In that short time a city, and 
one far more durable and beautiful, has been added 
to the old. The story of the city's advancement is 
not a tale told second-hand to a third party, repeated 
as hearsay and heard with suspicion; the material is at hand; 
every patriotic citizen affirms it and tenders it as a challenge 
to investigation. No city in America can boast of natural ad- 
vantages superior to those of Norfolk, and here, upon the 
shores of Hampton Roads, Destiny has decreed that a city of 
magnificent proportions should be established, for not in all 
this broad land can there be found a spot more fair or more ac- 
cessible. This is the grand meeting place for commerce and 
industry, this imperial harbor is the peerless arena of the nation, 
and here in the coming years the generations will look upon 
a commerce to which its present activity will seem but a pitiful 
trade. 




The Taylor Building 



It is, therefore, her superior and impregnable 
position which assures to Norfolk a position among the greater 
seaports of the world. Geographically, industrially, and com- 
mercially, she is on the point of perfection along the line of 
least resistance, and while very indifferent endeavors to test 
her strength have thus far been made, the propulsive move- 
ment is beginning and Norfolk's star is in the ascendant. 

27 



♦ 






THE INCOMPARABLE HAMPTON ROADS 


♦ 


•: »:• •:• 



In that section of Tidewater Virginia of which 
Norfolk is the center, shore and sea and climatic conditions 

have combined to create a ter- 
ritorv supremely attractive. 
The site of Norfolk is one of 
the choicest of a choice selec- 
tion. Situated on Hampton 
Roads. that> splendid harbor 
and arena of knightly encoun- 
ters. Norfolk and its environ- 
ment are rich in every prospect 
TO tire the heart of patriotism 
and sparkle the eye of Nature's 
lover. Land and sea abound 
in historic interest. The ex- 
panse of Hampton Roads is 
the scene of many gallant 
achievements of the American 
sailor, and the shores about 
are forever consecrated by the 
\alorous blood of the Ameri- 
can soldier. Here, in the Na- 
tion's infancy, the savage war 
cry roused the colonists. Here 
the English mariners met the ships of France. Here, in the 
Revolutionary war and the war of 1812, American sailors set 
their battle flag and defied the power of Britain; and it 
was here, during the great Civil war, that the Monitor and 
Merrimac inaugurated a new epoch in the naval affairs of the 
world. 

All these stirring incidents have long since passed 
into history and the Hampton Roads of today is an arena of 
peace and plenty, the grand emporium of the world, where the 
fleets of commerce ply back and forth, presenting a marine pic- 
ture unequalled on the American Continent. During the sum- 
mer months the call of Hampton Roads is heard to the Mis- 
sissippi River and the two hundred thousand annual visitors 
are made up of the excursionists from all surrounding States. 

28 




Lorraine Hotel 



B* i^ m til ^ 




NORFOLK 



(9 
ii 



The NATION'S 

NAVAL 

CITY 




HAT the National Government is duly cognizant of 
the supreme importance of Norfolk as the country's 
naval base is shown in the various massive fortifica- 
tions which it has erected in the vicinity. In addition 
to the extensive works at Fortress Monroe, properly 
termed "the key to the Capital," there are minor defences at 
points along Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay which 
include Fort Wool and the smaller battery within the city 
limits on the Elizabeth river. Plans are being considered for 
extensive works at Cape Henry to guard the entrance to Chesa- 
peake Bay, and these will doubtless be of sufficient power to 
effectually resist invasion at the very threshold of the conti- 
nent. The existing garrisons are maintained in the average 
force of five thousand men, which of course is greatly aug- 
mented when the fleets drop their anchors in the harbor. This 
host of sturdy American soldiers and sailors make up to a con- 
siderable extent the life of Norfolk, interesting and picturesque, 
and always inspiring. 

Across the harbor, at Newport News, is located 
the greatest shipbuilding plant in America, the proximity of 
which to Norfolk entitles this city to claim its share in this 
stupendous enterprise. 

Perhaps no item of recent years has so served 
to bring this city before the American public as the departure 
from and return to the port of Norfolk of the great world-gird- 
ling fleet. It was an event which astonished even the natives, 
accustomed though they are* to the presence of warships and 
naval pageantry. The festivities and the parade on the return 
of this magnificent aggregation of fighting ships is without 
a parallel in the annals of America's peaceful pageantry. The 
grand and memorable spectacle was reproduced by moving 
pictures and has stirred the pride and enthusiasm of hundreds 
of American communities, which have thus been brought to 
realize the importance of Norfolk, Va. It was a great occasion 
but the city rose to it nobly; in the words of a local poet: 

30 



"Virginia hails the fleet's return 
Across the fields of foam, 
The last to fling a fond farewell, 
She's first to greet it home." 

If there were no printed records of Norfolk's past, 
the history of the American navy would of itself alone make 
a fairly comprehensive history of the city, for from the earliest 
days of the Nation this city has been the great rendezvous for 
the American fleets and the residence of many distinguished 




Norfolk Protestant Hospital. 



naval officers. Elsewhere in this work will be found a photo- 
graphic reproduction of the great naval parade referred to, and 
also a picture of the magnificent new Naval Y. M. C. A. pre- 
sented by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, the dedication of which 
was appropriatly consummated during the now historic "fleet 
week." This splendid structure is but one of the many pre- 
tentious architectural additions to the Norfolk of the past few 
years. 

31 




o 
z 

s 

B 

pq 

< 



> 
< 



Q 
Z 

63 
J 
D- 

a 

H 

o 

z 
o 

< 
o 

Q 
H 
Q 




ALL ROADS LEAD TO 



NORFOLK 




With twenty-six steamship lines and ten railroads 
having their terminals at Norfolk this city is the hub from 
which the lines of travel and traffic radiate as the spokes of 
a wheel. Approaching or leaving the city in any direction 
there are on the average several routes from which to select. 

Located on the shores of the Nation's finest har- 
bor and in proximity to a dozen famous seaside resorts, the 
visitor to Norfolk may crowd into his itinerar}^ a multitude of 
delightful experiences impossible but to a destination so ad- 
mirably located. 

The charm of Norfolk lies in its unrivalled situ- 
ation on the sea, with an environment the most naturally and 
historically interesting of the Nation. 

Lying within the inner circle of the Nation's 
densest population, whatever route one may choose to reach 
Norfolk lies through magnificent scenic sections lined with 
splendid cities. 

The visitor from the Northern States or Eas- 
tern Canada is in this respect especially fortunate, having 
a choice of land or water routes, or a combination of both not 
to be excelled. 

The visitor from the West passes through the en- 
trancing mountain scenery of North Carolina or Virginia, and 
his whole route is a panorama of natural loveliness. 

From Pennsylvania and the adjoining States the 
route is through historic sections and battlefields with stop- 
overs at Washington and other interesting cities. 

All roads lead to Norfolk, and these roads lead 
through the most beautiful and interesting section of Eastern 
America. 

NORFOLK'S GREAT RAILROAD SYSTEMS. 

The railroads which focus their glistening lines 
of steel at the sea portals of Norfolk radiate through all points 
of the compass for approximately twenty-five thousand miles, 
which together with the connections, make up the chains that 
bind a captive continent to the service of this port. 

33 



These systems comprise: 

Atlantic Coast Line. 
Chesapeake & Ohio. 
Norfolk and AVestern. 

N. Y., Phil. & Norfolk (in connection with Penn- 
sylvania system). 

Norfolk Southern. 
Seaboard Air Line. 
The Southern. 
The Virginian. 
The Belt Line. 
The Electric Systems. 

THE IMPORTANT STEAMSHIP LINES COMPRISE: 

Old Dominion S. S. Co. 
Merchants and Miners S. S. Co. 
Chesapeake Steam Ship Co. 
Bay Line. 

Norfolk and Washington S. S. Co. 
LeRoy Steamship Co. 

Maryland, Delaware and Virginia S. S. Co. 
Virginia Navigation Co. 
Clyde Line. 

Furness-AA'ithy Co., Ltd., to London, England, 
with passenger service. 

Operating over fifteen thousand miles of water 
service and offering superior and cheap transportation for pas- 
sengers and freight to all important points along the Atlantic 
Seaboard. 

WATER TRANSPORTATION. 

The schedules by water are : 

To Boston, 36 hours ; Providence, 30 hours ; New 
York, 19 hours; Philadelphia, 24 hours; Baltimore, 12 hours; 
Washington, 13 hours; Richmond, 12 hours; London, England, 
once every two weeks. The fleet covering these schedules 
comprises thirty-two vessels, and provides regularly forty-two 
sailings per week, with additional sailings when necessary, the 
gross tonnage of the vessels being 73,321 tons, 

34 



THE SPLENDID WATER FRONT. 

By reference to the map it will be noted that the 
city of Norfolk lies upon the Elizabeth river, an arm of the 
famous harbor of Hampton Roads. This is the older Norfolk 
which is so situated. The growth of the city, particularly the 
industrial and commercial growth, is towards the north, and 
Greater Norfolk will lie upon the shore of Hampton Roads, 
occupying the same relative position on the south as Newport 
News, some five miles distant, does on the north, and this ex- 
tension will rapidly embrace the magnificent section lately oc- 
cupied by the Jamestown Exposition. If due foresight and wis- 
dom is used in the making of the new Norfolk, if intelligent 
experience is applied and the imperfections of other places 
carefully guarded against, the city to come will take its place 
among the cities beautiful of the world with a unique distinc- 
tion and individuality not to be duplicated. 

The various water courses which indent and tra- 
verse this section in every conceivable direction, appearing 
upon the map as a delicate tracery of ornamentation, may be 
utilized for the highest effects of art, making of the Norfolk 
of the future the most beautiful and picturesque city on the con- 
tinent — the Venice of America. Nor is this a dream of the 
remote future. Under the conditions of present progress it 
is a dream most likely to have fulfillment within the life-time 
of the present generation, the assurance of which already has 
its inception in the present Beautification Commission. "The 
Sea-City Beautiful" will be a designation appropriate to Nor- 
folk by reason of the combined natural and artistic beauties 
it will present. 

NORFOLK AS A HOME CITY. 

A feature of Norfolk's growth during the last 
decade has been the development of numerous suburban sec- 
tions which have generally become a part of the city. Various 
land companies are engaged in the improvement and exploita- 
tion of outlying districts, and the very reasonable and liberal 
terms upon which lots are offered to the public have enabled 
multitudes to own their homes, and this has been, and continues 
to be, an important factor in the sum of Norfolk's progress. 

A home by the surging sea ! Who, that having 
experienced the delights of such, could be lured to live else- 
where? 

36 



Many of these suburban properties are along the 
splendid water courses for which the section is famous and 
frequently tenants may step from the rear of their back gar- 
dens into their pleasure boats with a highway before whose 
boundary is the shore of the old world. The bare contemplation 
gives one a feeling of enlarged freedom. Taking into consid- 
eration the advantages of location in Norfolk, rents are moder- 
ate, and there are houses available in every section of the 
city to suit all purses. 




U. S. Marine Hospital 



POPULATION. 

The growth of Norfolk during the past five years 
has been rapid. The present year will break all records in 
gain in population and a large gain in new buildings. Norfolk 
had in 1880 a population of 21,966, in 1890 a population of 34,- 
871, in 1900 a population of 46,624, and in 1910 the population is 
estimated at nearly 100,000, while the commercial population, 
including those living outside the city, but engaged in business 
in Norfolk, will increase the population to fully 120,000. 

37 



NORFOLK AN AMERICAN CITY. 

Up to the present, for reasons that have no plausi- 
ble explanation, immigration has had little or nothing to do with 
this section of Virginia. In the early days of immigration, after 
the Revolution had been fought and won, the tides of immigra- 
tion seemed to diverge at the Virginia coast, and of the great 
hosts of Germans and Irish who came to this country those 
who did not land at New York or Boston did so at either 
Charleston or Savannah, hence the population of Virginia 
and of Norfolk in particular is composed of the descendants 




Sarah Leigh Hospital 

of the original English colonial stock, forming so far as an 
American city can, a distinctly homogeneous population and 
perhaps the most distinctly American city on the continent. 
This has frequently been a subject of comment by those ac- 
quainted with all sections of the country. The increase of 
population above the natural has been gathered from the va- 
rious States of the Union and has been mainly of the same 
parent stock as that of the natives. 

3& 




NORFOLK'S IDEAL CLIMATE. 

N THE sum of those things which make up the com- 
fort, healthfuhiess, and happiness of mankind, certain- 
ly the item of cHmate is one of the greater factors. 
Where life is a constant struggle against adverse 
climatic conditions, all other advantages, how^ever 
great they may be, must suffer deterioration. Throughout 
the whole of North America there are very few sections 
presenting so perfect a coast climate as that of Tidewater Vir- 
ginia surrounding the city of Norfolk. Because of the nu- 
merous estuaries, rivers, lakes, and bays, — to say nothing of 
the great sea, — which indent and invest in every direction 
this great extent of territory, the heated winds of Summer are 
tempered and cooled as they pass over expanses of multitudi- 
nous waters. In ^^'inter the Gulf Stream opposes its vast col- 
umn of relatively heated air as a barrier against the biting north- 
westers which chill and solidify the sections remote from its 
genial influence. The winds at Norfolk, filled as they are 
with the rich odors of the great contiguous pine lands on the 
one hand, or with the invigorating ozone of the sea on the 
other, are the factors in the sum of climatic excellence, which 
for all we know to the contrary, render this section distinct 
and unique in the topography of the planet. It is the combina- 
tion of these atmospheric elements which renders the climate 
of Norfolk so thoroughlv delightful and so remarkaldv health- 
ful. 

Data compiled from the best authorities, includ- 
ing that of the U. S. Weather Bureau, and covering a period of 
twenty years, show the mean annual temperature at Norfolk 
to be 62.9 degrees, and the month averages as follows : January 
42.8, February 49.9, March 51.7. April 59.2, May 65.8, June 72.6, 
July 78.4, August 80.6, September 73.9, October 62.4, Novem- 
ber 60.1, December 52.5. One hundred degrees of heat has 
been reached on but few occasions during this extended period, 
and Winters frequently pass without the temperature falling 
below 32 degrees. The average A\'inter temperature is 41.9 
and that of Summer 77.4. 

In climatic qualification humidity is a factor of 
large import, and here again this section is happily favored, 
proffering a mean relative humidity for the year of 71.8, which 
practically represents the medium between the extremes of 
this phenomenon, operating to keep the landscape of a delight- 
ful green freshness and rarely reaching the point of oppres- 
siveness. 

39 



The U. S. Weather Bureau gives Norfolk a total 
of 258.8 sunny days out of the 365, and with the statement 
of this fact further comment on the climate of this section is 
unnecessary. 




The New Norfolk National Bank 



FREEDOM FROM STORMS AND EARTHQUAKES. 

The cyclones of the South Atlantic States expend 
their fury between those States and the West India Islands 
and reach Norfolk with spent force. The unroofing of houses 
and the demolition of miles of water front property, as some- 
times happens at other places, is a calamity happily unknown 
to Norfolk. No earthquake shock of any consequence has ever 
been recorded in this section. The sense of security thus 
resulting is a potential factor in the investment of capital. 

40 



HISTORICAL NORFOLK AND ENVIRONMENT. 

Founded in 1682, Norfolk proper naturally takes 
its place in the genesis department of things American. It 
presents an array of material witnesses to support its writ- 
ten history and make it in- 
teresting. Almost every 
great event of American 
history is in some manner 
connected with Norfolk. 
Every war the country has 
engaged in has left its im- 
press here ; the memorials 
are many and would require 
a special book to properly 
detail and elaborate. Among 
the best known of Norfolk 
antiquities is old St. Paul's 
church, a relic of the Colo- 
nial period, still maintained 
as a house of worship, as 
it probably will be for cen- 
turies to come. 

Among the more impor- 
tant adjacent historical 
points may be mentioned 
Jamestowm, Cape Henry, 
where the first settlers set 
foot u p o n American soil, 
and the famous Hampton 
Roads, the scene of much 
of the naval glory of the na- 
tion. Taken in connection 
with the host of eminent 
and illustrious men wdio have lived in this city, the claim 
that Norfolk is the most historical city of the Union is merely 
the plain statement of a plain fact. No matter what may be the 
splendor of Norfolk's future, the renown of her past will 
ever remain her chief glory. 




The Virginia Club 



THE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 



The legislative and administrative branches of 
Norfolk's . government comprise a Mayor, a Board of Con- 
trol consisting of three members, a Common Council, and 
a Board of Aldermen. The various important offices are 

41 



filled by the voters. A new code will shortly be adopted, under 
which some needed reforms are expected to become operative. 
The Police Department is adequate to the needs of the city 
and Norfolk is decidedly an orderly community. Labor and 
capital are harmonious and strikes are of very rare occurrence. 




The Board of Trade Building 



The negro population is barely one-third of the total, the races 
living together in amity and the horrors of lynching are un- 
known. The Norfolk fire department ranks in equipment, qual- 
ity, and effectiveness with the best in the country, and insurance 
rates are moderate with a downward tendency. In all of these 
items the city measures up with the best conducted munici- 
palities of America. 

42 




View of City Hall Avenue, Looking West, 1887 




View of City Hall Avenue from Same Point, 1910 



1 




THE VIRGINIAN RAILROAD 

Norfolk's Latest Acquisition and Commercial Asset 







HE investment of the stupendous sum of forty mil- 
lions of dollars in the new V'irginian Railroad iDy the 
late Henry H. Rogers has served perhaps more than 
any one other item to direct the attention of the 
Nation upon this seciton and city. 

This magnificent road extends from Deepwater, 
W. Va., to Sew^ell's Point, on the edge of the city of Norfolk, 
a distance of 446 miles, and w^as opened for business April 





Tidewater Terminal of Virginian Railroad, the Great Coal Pier 

1st, 1909. The great coal piers at Sewell's Point have a ca- 
pacity of 15,100 tons of coal per day. Through the comple- 
tion of this splendid enterprise a million acres of the best 
coal lands in West Virginia are rendered accessible at Nor^ 
folk to the shipping of the world. In a single county tra- 

44 



^Md 






f=--^ 



^•^ 



k 



\^ aa &■ 



o 

« 

K 

03 
H 

O 

O 




^ 



■A' 




(% ■! 



versed by the trains of the Virginian road there is an item 
of 800,000,000 feet of standing- timber. For every lineal 
mile between the terminals of this new road there are fifty 
tributary, and these consist of the finest grazing and agricul- 
tural lands of the State. Tapping a territory of splendid and 
varied resources, the wealth opened to commerce by the Vir- 
ginian Railway pays toll and tril)ute at the gates of Norfolk. 
Peanuts, lumber, cotton, tobacco, fruits, wdieat, corn, live stock, 
etc., will pour into this city over the new line, and the return 
shipments will consist of the wares of the merchants of Nor- 
folk. 



^''^ttiJKtSSKSBSSKHSKSilllBmMtKKKKKKBmMBi^ 



Norfolk & Western Railway Coal Piers at Lamberts Point 



Mr. Rogers' forty-million-dollar investment is to 
all intents and purposes a new Norfolk asset, practically 
new Norfolk capital, and if so prodigious a resource fails to 
fortify the business courage and acumen of the financiers and 
merchants of this commuity it would make a strange reve- 
lation in the records of industrial movements. On the com- 
mercial horizon Norfolk is a higher magnitude star and a ris- 
ing one. Up to a few years ago very indifferent endeavors 
to test this truth were made ; it needs little demonstration 
now. We are not dealing with corn-stalk towns or mine- 
boomed villages, but with one of the oldest and certainly one 
of the most conservative cities of the Nation. If money and 
enterprise will not secure themselves upon a rising market we 
have indeed something new under the commercial sun. Nor- 
folk is a rising market, and the most attractive point in Amer- 
ica for the investment of capital, large or small. 

46 



The inauguration of the new Virginian Railway 
was a momentous circumstance in the history of this city, 
sounding a call that has been heard throughout the length and 
breadth of the land. 




The times are auspicious, the location is most 
attractive, the men, money, merchandise, are massing here- 
abouts, the methods for movements are at hand, and prosperity, 
of a most generous quality, has settled down for an indefinite 
sojourn in Tidewater Virginia with headquarters at Norfolk. 

47 




Scenes at Ocean View, Norfolk's Popular Seaside Resort 



NORFOLK 

VIRGINIA 


INAUGURATION OF PASSENGER 

SERVICE 

BETWEEN THESE POINTS 


LONDON 

ENGLAND 



Concurrent with the preparation of this work 
comes formal announcement by Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd., 
of the inauguration of passenger service between Norfolk and 
London, England. Two fine steamships of this firm will make 
fortnightly trip-^ between these ports, carrying freight and pas- 
sengers. This movement is generally regarded as one of the 




Southern Railway and Atlantic Coast Line R. R. Piers at Pinners Point 



most significant in the marine history of this city, indicating 
as it does a striking recognition of the growing importance of 
this port. It also indicates that in the near future Norfolk is 
to be one of the ports of immigration entry. The firm of 
Furness, Withy & Co., Limited, have long conducted a great 
freight traf^c between this port and Great Britain, but the 
inauguration of direct and continued passenger service is an 
innovation as important as it is interesting. 

The resident of Norfolk may now take a pleas- 
ant sea trip on fine commodious steamers lying almost at his 
door, and at the small cost of eighty dollars for the round trip 
he may visit the land of his ancestors. The announcement 
of this service has already proved very interesting, especially 
to the holiday hosts of the Southern States. 

49 




Tidewater Virginia 

The Garden Spot of The Atlantic States 



A WORD TO AMERICAN EMIGRANTS. 

Surely few, if any, of those hundred thousand 
Americans who went over into Canada during the past year 
to engage in agricultural pursuits, had ever heard of the great- 
er opportunities awaiting them in Virginia under their own 
flag. With the knowledge and the choice before them it is 




Scene in Trucking District, Shipping Truck to Norfolk Merchants 

hardly conceivable that any would choose the bleak climate 
of the Canadian Northwest and the dull monotony of exclusive 
wheat raising for the sunny skies of this section and the di- 
versity of delightful farming which it offers to the industrious 
worker. 



61 



FORTUNES FROM FARMING 

Splendid fortunes have Deen made and are being 
made by the truckers and farmers of Tidewater Virginia, and 
numbers of the richest men in Norfolk have made their wealth 
from the soil in the vicinity of this city. It needs but slight 
investigation to substantiate this statement. The men are 
here, the farms on which their bank accounts have grown dot 
the landscape and many of them in the range of vision from the 
top of some of the tall buildings. While the sections to the 
north are still frozen tight the truckers of Tidewater Virginia 




In the Cotton District 



are shipping great carloads of cabbage, kale, onions, spinach,, 
strawberries, etc., to the cities of the North and East, and these 
crops are merely preliminary to the larger planting and the 
greater harvests which follow. Taking as a unit for demons- 
tration, the 100 square miles in which Norfolk is located, it is 
a fact, according to U. S. Government Agriculture Bureau 
statistics, that the soil produces more pecuniary return from 
agricultural sources than any other 100 contiguous square, 
miles in the United States or Canada. 

52 



ROOM AND OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL. 

Virgin immensities, endless tracts, tremendous 
stretches of fertile lands still wait in generous promise the 
hand of industry and the sowing of the seed. Very truly 
it has been said that the backbone of any nation, and indeed 
of civilization itself, is agriculture, and in this regard Tidewater 
Virginia is the backbone of the Atlantic States. Norfolk is 
the distributing point for these immense harvests and the 
transportation lines, rail and water, are taxed to their ca- 




LoADiNG Truck for New York 



pacity the year round to place the food supply before the hun- 
gry and helpless millions of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, 
Washington, Baltimore and other places. 

THE INDEPENDENT FARMER. 



Nor is there any solicitation necessary, contrary 
to the usual exigencies of business. The Northern commission 
houses send their best men to this section the year round to 



53 



bid against each other for the produce of the farms of this sec- 
tion of Virginia. The intelligent farmer hereabouts is one of 
the most independent men on earth ; when once he has done 
his share by nature, nature does a generous part by him and 
he asks no odds of anv man. 




Truck for Northern Markets 



SPORT AND GAME. 

Within twenty miles of Norfolk there lie some 
of the finest small game preserves on the Continent. The in- 
land waterways and branches of the sea swarm with water 
fowl and in season attract numbers of wealthy sportsmen 
from the North. The Dismal Swamp and the great Desert 
behind Cape Henry are veritable sportsmen's paradises, teem- 
inpf with game birds, rabbits, deer, and not a few bears. 

HAPPY DIVERSION OF LABOR. 

Owing to the multitudinous rivers and creeks 
which indent the land in every direction farms frequently have 
water frontage, in which case the harvest of the sea, fish and 

54 



oysters, may be gathered and made a source of revenue during 
the very few weeks of winter when farming operations are 
suspended. This section includes the counties on the coast and 
along the tidewater streams, where the soil is uniformly rich 




The Hucksters' Market 



and responsive and over which the rain and sunshine follow 
each other as if under the regulation of the goddess of Fortune 
herself. 

LARGE VARIETY OF CROPS. 



No country has a better distribution of rain than 
this. Some of the general farm crops are corn, cotton, tobacco, 
cowpeas, peanuts, oats and hay. The principal truck and fruit 
crops are lettuce, strawberries, beets, cauliflower, snap beans, 
cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupes, radishes, onions, peppers, 

55 



okra, egg-plant, carrots, cabbage, spinach, turnips, tomatoes, 
asparagus, English peas, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, 
cranberries, figs, apples, grapes, plums, peaches and pears. (In 
some instances from four to five crops are grown on the same 
land in one season.) 




A Two-year-old Peach Orchard within Five Miles of Norfolk 



When to all this is added the items of poultry, 
timber, and firewood, flowers, honey and various other inci- 
dental products, it will be seen that the opportunity for the 
energetic American farmer is at home and that instead of going 
to Canada he should turn his face to Tidewater Virginia. 

Indeed it is 

A smiling land of plenty, where the generous plains and fields 
Bring forth a golden harvest, and a kindly nature yields 
An abundance of such blessings, that the mind is staggered quite 
To put them into figures and reveal them to your sight. 

56 




Norfolk in Epitome 

FACTS : FIGURES : FEATURES : FAIRLY FOUND 



Population Norfolk City proper, 78,000 — a gain of 58.000 since 1880. 
Population Norfolk County, tributary to city, 1.15,000. 
Population Norfolk and Portsmouth, practically one community, 

117,000. 
Within a radius of five miles, 130,000. 




The Lynnhaven Hotel 

Area of Norfolk, 4,253 acres — a gain of over 3,000 acres in 35 years. 
Greatest Coal Port of Weste^-n Hemisphere. Annual shipments 
over 5,000,000 tons; facilities lately doubled. 



57 



NORFOLK IN EPITOME 

Electric Street Railway system 193 miles; only three miles in 1880. 
Real Estate assessment, 1880 — .$8,7f>5,4y2; 1907 — $38,941,970; 

1909 over ,$48,000,000.00. 

Water-borne sliipments aggregate yearly 14,000,000 tons, value 

$588,650,000. 
Nine splendid modern hotels with many smaller ones. 




Power-house of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Traction Co. 

This is the Largest Electric Powcr-Plaut South of Philadelphia 



Banking capital, 1902 — $2,745,469; 1909 — $6,863,665. Bank re- 
sources, $28,409,171. 

Banks, 15, State and National; combined deposits, $19,711,504.00 — 
increase of over 140 per cent, since 1900. 

Bank Clearings, $147,299,117.00. 

700,000,000 feet of Timber, or 137,758 miles, yearly output of port; 
value $10,500,000. 

58 



NORFOLK IN EPITOME 

Lumber Mills employ 2,500 men with yearly salary list of 

$840,000. 
Railroad lines, 10; Steamship lines, over a score. 
Real and Personal Property assessment, over $49,000,000.00, or 

$684.35 per capita. 




The Carnegie (Public) Library"^ 



Over 300 Manufacturing' Establishments, capitalized at nearly $20,- 
000,000, paying approximately $5,000,000 annually in wages 
to 12,000 employees. 

Fuel for manufacturing, .$2.65 per ton. 

Cost of labor from $1.25 to $1.75 per day. 

A Great AVholesale and Jobbing center constantly displacing rivals. 

Norfolk's transportation lines, penetrating all sections, find their 
facilities constantly taxed to meet the requirements of trade. 



NORFOLK IN EPITOME 

Annual truck shipments, the produce of the adjacent country, over 

10,000,000 barrels, boxes, crates and packages a year, valued 

at nearly $16,000,000,00. 
Trucking grounds around Norfolk have realized as high as $500.00 

gross sales per acre. 
24,000 miles of Railway Systems terminate at Norfolk. 
Fertilizer output, annually, 250,000 tons, valued at $6,000,000. 
Harbor, land-locked, ice-free, twenty miles from ocean, with depth 

of water 30 to 35 feet. 




Scene in Lafayette Park 



Norfolk's shipping congregates in the incomparable Hampton Roads, 
famous among the hai'bors of the world. 

About 1,000 foreign vessels freighted annually at this port. 

Seven splendid developed seaside resorts within a radius of twenty 
miles, or one hour by trolley or boat. 

For Commerce and Manufactures Norfolk is the "Point of Perfec- 
tion" on the "Line of Least Resistance," the most advan- 
tageously located point on the continent. 

Statistically and actually one of the healthiest cities in the United 
States. 

Nearer than New York to Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha, and all 
points South and West. 

60 



NORFOLK IN EPITOME 

Tiaiispoitatioii teiiiiiiials embrace 50,000 lineal feet of waterfront, 

2,000,000 square feet of warehouses, adequate yard capacity, 

and 300 private sidings. 
Shipments by water from Norfolk aggregate annually 14,000,000 

tons, valued at $500,000,000. 
Belt Line, connecting all railroads and transportation facilities, 

operates nine miles of trackage and ten miles of sidings. 
Excursion visitoi-s yeai-ly, 200,000. 
Railroads of Norfolk employ about 4,000 people. 




Great Sand-hills at Cape Henry 

These mountains of saud ate over 100 feet high 



Ocean passenger service of the best to all princii)al coast cities, 

North and South, and to England. 
Climatic conditions unsurpassed by any section in America. 
Norfolk, a city of Commerce, Agriculture, and Manufactures. 
Total aggregate of trade yearly, $700,000,000. 
Ninety miles of paved and sewered streets. 
Four large Hospitals. 
Greatest Peanut Market on earth; value of peanut shipments, 

$9,000,000.00. 
Norfolk's Factories, Navy Yard, V^essels, Railroads, employ some 

40,000 people. 
Five miles of developed water frontage. 

61 



NORFOLK IN EPITOME 

Water frontage still avaihible for coinniercial use, 35 miles. 

Building permits past year, 867. Value of imiirovements, $3,000,- 
000. 

Increase of population for eight years, 2.3,000. 

Yearly value of mine shipments, .15120,000,000. 

Telephone subscribers, 8,131; increase in five years, 4,665. 

Cotton shipments foi- past ten years have averaged over half 
million bales yearly, valued at approximately .$25,000,000.00 
each season. Norfolk is the fourth cotton port of the world. 




The B-vnk of Norfolk 



Mean temperature of Norfolk by seasons: Spring, 57 degrees; Sum- 
mer, 78 degrees; Autumn, 62 degrees; Winter, 42 degrees. 

Religious denominations are represented by 77 churches. 

Water supply abundant and pure, equally good for manufacturing 
purposes as for consumption. 

Fire Department thoroughly equipped and up-to-date. Average 
insurance rates. 

€2 



NORFOLK IN EPITOME 

Police Department adequate to the needs of an unusally orderly 
community. 

Possibility of future beautification unequalled by any city of 
America. 

Libraries comjirise tlie new Carnegie (public), the Law Library, and 
the Medical Library. 

Nearly every Secret and Fraternal Order of any importance repre- 
sented in the numerous Norfolk Lodges. 




Cou :t^rpoise Bridge over Elizabeth River 



The greater md grander Norfolk has been the growth of the last 

te-t yc I's. 
Oysters, the dnest in the world. Output 3,500,000 bushels annually. 
Sales of Horses, $2,500,000 annually. 
Fish and Game yield a revenue of $1,000,000 annually. 
One million gallons of wine manufactured and shipped annually. 
Norfolk's Silk Mill, manufacturing high-grade silk, employs 350 

hands. 
Numerous Clubs and Social Societies dispense Southern^-especially 

Norfolkian — hospitality, and the respectable stranger is ever 

a welcome guest. 

63 



NORFOLK IN EPITOME 

Norfolk has a half dozen fii'st-class Building' and Loan Associations, 

which offer splendid inducements to home seekers. 
Three large daily newspapei'S, two weekly newspapers, and two 

first-class magazines are published in Norfolk. 
Norfolk has one of the finest race tracks in the South, an excellent 

baseball field, and three large theatres. 
Church membership over ten thousand. 
As a strategic point for the wholesaler Norfolk is unsurpassed and 

the business is doubling every few years. 
Norfolk offers to outsiders great opportunities for business success, 

a healthful climate, a cordial welcome from kindly people, 

and great educational advantages. 
At a conservative estimate Norfolk will double her population and 

triple her wealth in another decade. 




The Dickson Building 



25 Public schools, with 215 teachei-s and 803.5 scholars. A new 
high school costing .$250,000. Aggregate of school prop- 
erty over $1,0000,000. 

To be classed among the greatei- seaports of the world is Norfolk's 
destiny; watch her grow! 

There are forty million people within a day's ride of Norfolk. 

Norfolk's banks show a capital and surplus of $6,863,665; deposits, 
$19,711,504; aggregate resources, $29,607,190.00. 

The population of the commimities lying on Hampton Roads is fuUy 
175,000. 

Norfolk is the country's fourth cotton port. Annual shipments 
500,000 bales, valued approximately at $27,600i000. 

Street mileage, 150; paved streets, 60 miles; sewers, 58 miles. 

64 



NORFOLK IN EPITOME 

The above figures, embodjing the sahent facts and statistics gath- 
ered from first sources and official records, will serve to indicate the im- 
mensity of the Norfolk of today, but representing as they do the figures 
of a city yet in its commercial infancy, they present an allurement for 
capital and an attraction for enterprise beyond any that the country has 
to offer. At a very conservative estimate every figure cited will be 




Citizens Bank Building 



doubled within the next ten years. For good and sufficient reasons the 
commercial importance of Norfolk is a subject of decided outside interest. 
So far back as 1907 the "Manufacturers Record" said: 

"Today, Norfolk is enjoying an expansion along every line 
which is without precedent and which exceeds the hopes of even 
the most optimistic of its citizens. This expansion cannot, in 
any sense of the word, be termed a boom or temporary in its 
character, but it is the result of an awakening of its citizens 
and the appreciation of outsiders of the splendid advantages 
and facilities which the city possesses." 

65 





NORFOLK 

A Classic City- 




Cf] [t] ft] 


C?3 [t] Ct] 








( )T only is Norfolk historically renowned, bnt she is 
likewise historically classic by reason of the host of 
of eminent men of letters and achievements who have 
either lived or tarried awhile within her portals. Gen- 
erals, statesmen, writers, orators, and poets have dig- 
nified her soil and rendered her illustrious by their presence. 

Between the period of the Revolutionary and the 
Civil wars, the city of Norfolk was distinguished throughout 
the Nation for the culture, refinement, and intellectuality of its 




Ohef Sholom Hebrew Temple 

society. Very indifferent endeavors to treat this interesting 
subject have been made, but it will be found a generous field 
for the one who will turn it up. 

Few places, in so short a time as the period indi- 
cated, have produced such a multitude of eminent and distin- 

67 



giiished people as has this city. During thi^ period the name 
of Norfolk was better known to distinguished people of 
England and other European countries than that of any other 
American city. 




St. Mary's Catholic Church 

The list of eminent scholars, statesmen, and sol- 
diers who lived and labored here is large, and in proportion to- 
es 



the population it may be truthfully said, that rarely in modern 
times has such a brilliant galaxy of lofty intellect been crowded 
together in the same time and space. 

This enviable distinctionwaslargelyduetothepre- 
ponderatingly high quality of the early Virginian settlers whose 
first home was in this section. Transplanted from the milder 
and slower-maturing climate of the British Isles, Anglo-Saxon 
genius, subjected to the forcing power of a new soil and an im- 
petuous climate, flowered with prodigal luxuriance, culminating 
a few generations later in the world-renowned cluster of bril- 
liant names that center around the American Revolution. 




St. Paul's Episcopal Church 

Many of these distinguished men lived in Norfolk 
or had intimate relations with its society, and as like draws like, 
no distinguished visitor to America ever omitted Norfolk from 
his itinerary. 

It is not the purpose to dwell here upon this phase 
of the subject, beyond to point out to the modern visitor to 
Norfolk what may be for him a pleasant contemplation, that 
he is treading where Washington, LaFayette, Robert E. Lee, 
John Paul Jones, Admiral Farragut, Joseph E. Johnston, and 

69 



other great commanders have likewise trod ; and that he may 
enter portals where Thomas Jefferson, John Randolph Tucker, 
Lyttleton Tazewell, Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, Mat- 
thew F. Maury and Robert IngersoU have likewise entered; 
and that the scenes about him have been sanctified by the pres- 
ence of poets, and that Thomas Moore, Edgar Allen Poe, Sid- 
ney Lanier, James Barron Hope, Father Ryan and John Boyle 




Freemason Street Baptist Church 

O'Reilly have in turn looked upon them. In fact it would be 
difificult to find among the great names of American history 
those who have not had relations with Norfolk or who did not 
either live or visit here. Indeed it seems that a pilgrimage to 
this city is the necessary finish to a national reputation, and 
only during the last few months Mark Twain has furnished an 
example of this somewhat strange coincidence. 

70 



R8 
8 
i 
8 



& 



NORFOLK AS A PLEASURE CITY |8 



i7i 




THE SUN-RISE CITY BY THE SEA. 

HY should life all labor be?" asks the poet, and the 
average man will readily agree that it should not. 
Of the sum of life 66 2-3 per cent, should properly be 
accorded to rest, recreation and pleasure, and we 
should be satisfied with no less. It would be a dull 
man who could find life in Norfolk monotonous. As a pleasure 
city it would be difficult to name its superior, for it is a lively 
spot, dowered with a multitude of natural blessings affording 
every opportunity for the enjoyment of the fair and pleasant 
things of life. 

The section in which Norfolk is built is of penin- 
sular form, bounded l^y the waters of the magnificent Chesa- 
peake Bay and the Atlantic ocean, and shot through in every 
conceivable direction by the tributary streams of those great 
bodies. Rivers, lakes, lagoons, bays, sea and ocean, stand to 
the service of the pleasure seeker, offering the boundless op- 
portunities for healthful recreation and the varied delight of 
existence which the sea alone affords, of which bathing, boat- 
ing, fishing, exploring, under the azure dome of heaven with 
its unpolluted and limitless ocean of ozone, are features. Those 
who have once felt the mighty charm of the sea will heed no 
other call. It is the spell supreme, the spell that binds the 
soul t^ serenity, the spell that moves the larger sympathies of 
our nature, the spell that holds the heart in thrall to wonder, 
the eternal sea, of which the poet wrote : 

'Time writes no wrinkles on thine azure brow. 
Such as Creation's dawn beheld thou rollest now." 





THE OCEAN SIDE. 

ASSING in or out of that great highway of commerce 
which lies between Cape Charles and Cape Henry, 
the eye of the traveler is invariably attracted by the 
sunny slopes and bright verdure which lies to the 
south. The scene presented is restful and beautiful 
in the extreme. Surrounded by a glittering beach on which the 
waves break in rythmic cadence ; washed on the north by the 
waters of the magnificent Chesapeake Bay, girt on the east by 
the stately billows of the solemn Atlantic, lies the point of land 
known as Cape Henry and which marks the commencement 
of the string of seaside resorts environing the city of Norfolk. 
This is the point of land upon which the eyes of the first Eng- 
lish colonists rested. This was their first glimpse of the great 
strange new continent and here they first set foot upon the 
shore of the new world. A bronze tablet set in the walls of the 
first but now obsolete lighthouse by the Association for the 
Preservation of Virginia Antiquities reads as follows : 



NEAR THIS SPOT 

LANDED APRIL 26, 1607 

Capt. Gabriel Archer Christopher Newport 

Hon. George S. Percy Bartholomew Gosnold 

Edward Maria Wingfield 

with twenty-five others 

who 

calling the place 

CAPE HENRY 

planted a cross 

APRIL 29, 1607 

"DEI GRATIA VIRGINIA CONDITA." 



From the top of the new lighthouse, 165 feet 
high, and open to visitors, the view is surpassingly grand. 
One instinctively catches breath at first sight of the world of 
land and water spread out before the wondering gaze. To 

72 



those who love to sit and watch the ships go by, Cape Henry 
is a never-failing spot of interest. The enormous foreign com- 
merce of eight large cities passes in and out at this point, the 
government's signal ofifice located here reports from 75 to 100 
vessels a day the year round. Every variety of steam and sail- 




Cape Henry Lighthouses 

The famous old Cape Henry Lighthouse, at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay, was erected in 1690 

and was used about 290 years until the new Lighthouse nearby was built 

in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century 



ing vessel pass this way and nod their first salute or fling their 
last farewell at old Cape Henry. Eight miles down the coast, 
set broadly on the ocean, lies the famous Virginia Beach now 
rapidly nearing the dignity of cityhood, and at about the same 
distance on the Chesapeake shore is Ocean View, appropriately 
called "the Coney Island of the South." 

This whole coast section is replete with enchant- 
ing prospects and historical interests to vivify, inspire, enthuse 
the tourist, making him loath to leave and anxious to return. 

73 



CHARITABLE AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 

Norfolk is blessed by a charitable spirit among all 
classes of its citizens. In addition to the numerous societies and 
lodges which care for the families of their members, and the 
benevolent work of the many churches, there are some fif- 
teen institutions for the care of the aged and infirm and desti- 
tute, including orphan asylums, houses of refuge for old people, 
houses of protection for young girls, the almshouse, aiid two 
institutions at the seaside for infants and working women need- 
ing rest and recreation. The aggregation makes a splendid 
showing for a city of this size, of which the people of Norfolk 
may feel proud. 

MATERIAL ASSETS. 

Norfolk's largest material assets are her w^ater- 
works and system, than which few places can boast a better; 
her sewerage system ; her public schools, comprising many 
artistic and durable structures; her city hall and market, and 
her parks. The public utilities operated by private corpora- 
tions are under adequate municipal control and all such services 
are operated at the lowest cost and to the best interests of the 
public. 

NORFOLK'S NEWSPAPERS, AND PUBLICATIONS. 

Norfolk has three excellent daily newspapers, the 
Landmark, the Virginian-Pilot, and the Ledger-Dispatch, the 
latter an e\'ening journal. The L^nionist, the organ of the Labor 
interests of this section, is published weekly. The Galaxy Mag- 
azine published monthly. 

Three pul)lishing companies are prepared for the 
printing and exploitation of any form of literature, and some of 
the works turned out in this city are not excelled in substance 
and mechanical make-up by any house in the country. First- 
class printing establishments are numerous. 

74 



OLD POINT COMFORT. 

A delightful hour's ride from Norfolk across the 
picturesque harbor of Hampton Roads lands one at Old Point 
Comfort with its Fortress Monroe, that massive sentinel of the 
Chesapeake, the greatest of American fortifications. A regi- 
ment of Coast Artillery is constantly stationed at this fort, in- 
cluding one of the finest l)ands of music in the United States 
service. Dress parades, free to the pu1)lic. are held daily, and 




Chamberlaine Building, Plume and Granby Streets 



the military pageantry presented in the framing of the fortifi- 
cations, with its combination of land and sea-scapes, is worth 
crossing the continent to witness. During the summer months 
hundreds of Norfolk people attend these drills daily. 

75 




NORFOLK NAVY YARD. 

^]HE Norfolk Navy Yard is situated about a mile from 
the center of the business district of the city, from 
which it may be reached in about twenty minutes. 
It has a water front of 3,800 feet and an area of about 
300 acres. The navy yard proper includes three dry 
docks, the battleship moorings, the great shipbuilding and re- 
pairing plants, the historical park and parade ground, and the 
various offices and. residences of the officials, including the Ma- 
rine barracks. On the other side of the river is the St. Helena 
Reservation, comprising 91 acres with wharfage and basins and 
immense drill grounds for the landsmen apprentices who are 
here made into sailors for Uncle Sam's navy. Here are berthed 
the receiving ships Franklin and Richmond. 

The training station has constantly from one to 
two thousand apprentices under training. It is very rare that 
one or more of the larger battleships of the navy are not moored 
on the opposite side, and at such times the naval and military 
force of the post will be from three to five thousand men who 
spend their liberty periods in Norfolk. 

The sham battles, dress parades, and daily drills, 
are deeply interesting, and though but an incident in the life 
of the average Norfolkian, the grand combination is a constant 
source of delight and entertainment to the visitor. As we go 
to press with this work the daily newspapers announce that 
the government has plans in hand for the construction of an 
immense dry dock at this yard, a structure that will hold two 
of the largest battleships at once, and to cost in the neighbor- 
hood of eight to ten millions of dollars. This is but the com- 
mencement of a vast scheme of improvement contemplated by 
the government in the way of great fortifications to guard this, 
the recognized strategic naval post of the Atlantic coast. 

Vastly important, especially to the cities of the 
North, will be the inauguration and development of the govern- 
ment's plans to make the Norfolk Navy Yard the adequate 
and impregnable base of the nation's sea-power. 

76 




The Old U. S. S. 74-gun Frigate "Delaware" in Stone Dry Dock 
AT Norfolk Navy Yard, June, 1833 



1 ; 


i , ^ 


m- 


1 


~~ 


Infw 


1 


^' ' _.;-^"'^^Siv* ■■ 


^%^ 


. — ^ 


mtf^ 




[, ■ • - j^' ^|H^|h 







The New 20,000-ton Battleship "Delawarej" in New Dry Dock at 
THE Norfolk Navy 5fARD, June, 1910 



THE GREAT DISMAL SWAMP. 

AN'ithin a few hours' ride of Norfolk lies the famous 
Dismal Swamp, one of the great natural wonders of America. 
This remarkable tract of country, hundreds of square miles in 
extent, contains in its center the celebrated Lake Drummond, 
a fresh water body nearly circular in formation and fifteen 
miles in circumference. This lake was the inspiration of 
Moore's well-known poem. "The Lake of The Dismal Swamp.'' 




The Norfolk Country Club 



The somber fastnesses of this great swamp with its wild and 
tangled luxuriance of foliage and impenetrable ferns and mo- 
rasses, possesses a charm and fascination for every mood and 
temperament. As a source of wealth it is one of the greater 
resources of Norfolk. The portion reclaimed for agriculture 
is wonderfully productive, and railroads and canals have been 
constructed for the transportation of its great stores of timber 

78 



and other products to the Norfolk market. For the hunter, 
ang-ler, naturaHst or mere pleasure rambler no spot is more 
interesting or attractive than the great Dismal Swamp of Vir- 
ginia, practically at Norfolk's door. 




Paul-Gale-Greenwood Building 



In short a jaunt in any direction from the city of 
NIorfoIk lands one amid natural beauties of uncommon interest, 
and in this particular respect the city has no superior, if indeed 
an equal, ui)on the American Continent. As a pleasure city 
Norfolk, Virginia, leads all others. 

79 



SEP 30 iftU 



Distance, Time and Fares to Norfolk, Va., from Important 
Points in the United States 



Place Miles 

Asheville, N. C 457 

Atlanta, Ga 595 

Baltimore, Md 186 

Boston, Mass 578 

Bristol, Tenn 408 

Charleston, S. C 391 

Charlotte, N. C 350 

Chattanooga, Tenn. 650 

Chicago, 111 969 

Cincinnati, 666 

Columbia, S. C 432 

Dallas. Texas 1,589 

Danville, Va 205 

Denver, Col 1,929 

Detroit, Mich 806 

Edenton, N. C 83 

Eliz. City, N. C 53 

Galveston, Texas. .1,483 
Greensboro, N. C... 257 
Hot Springs, Va... 293 
Hot Springs, Ark... 1,212 
Jacksonville, Fla. ... 578 

Kansas City, Mo 1,255 

Knoxville, Tenn 539 

Lexington, Ky 648 

Lexington, Va 280 

Louisville, Ky 733 



Hours Fare 



16:00 $10.55 


20:00 


14.75 


12:00 


3.00 


36:00 


12.00 


14:20 


9.75 


13:58 


9.85 


10:45 


8.10 


23:25 


15.75 


33:00 


19.00 


14:00 


15.00 


13:30 


9.40 


56:00 


33.80 


8:00 


5.20 


68:50 


39.85 


32:50 


16.25 


2:25 


2.10 


1:25 


1.35 


48:45 


35.25 


11:00 


5.75 


14:50 


6.30 


43:00 


26.45 


21:00 


17.85 


47:00 


26.45 


18:45 


13.45 


24:00 


15.50 


10:20 


6.25 


27:00 


17.00 



Place Miles Hours Fare 

Lynchburg, Va 204 6:45 5.00 

Memphis, Tenn 960 36:00 22.50 

Mobile, Ala 955 31:25 24.70 

Montgomery, Ala... 775 25:00 20.00 

Nashville, Tenn 846 29:25 18.00 

Natural Bridge, Va. 264 9:20 6.45 

New Orleans, La.. ..1,071 34:45 26.50 

New York, N. Y... 345 14:00 7.65 

Newport News, Va. 18 1:00 .25 

Old Point, Va 12 1:00 .25 

Ocean View, Va... 7 :20 .10 

Petersburg, Va 82 1:55 1.95 

Philadelphia, Pa 255 11:00 5 40 

Pittsburg, Pa. 480 24:00 11.00 

Richmond, Va 104 2:20 2.15 

Roanoke, Va 257 8:35 5 95 

Raleigh, N. C 176 6:30 4.35 

Savannah, Ga 506 15:45 13.45 

St. Augustine, Fla. 714 22:10 19.10 

Staunton, Va 216 11:00 6.85 

St. Louis, Mo 1,007 34:00 21.00 

Suffolk, Va 20 :30 .40 

Va. Beach, Va 18 :45 .25 

Washington, D. C. 210 12:0(i 3.00 

W. S. Spgs., W. Va. 312 10:45 7.00 

Wilmington, N. C... 245 10:00 6.75 



THE AGENCIES WHICH BUILD CITIES. 

CITIES OWE THEIR GROWTH AND GREATNESS TO ONE, OR SEVERAL, OR ALL 
OF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS: 

1ST, STRATEGIC POSITION IN THE GREAT COMMERCIAL ZONE, CREATING A 
NATURAL CLEARING HOUSE OF COMMERCE, BY LAND, OR WATER, OR BOTH. 

2nd. a RICH AGRICULTURAL ENVIRONMENT. 

3rd. MANUFACTORIES EXISTING BY REASON OF ADVANTAGES OVER OTHER 
PLACES. 

4th. UNUSUAL EXCELLENCE OF CLIMATE WITH COMPLETE FREEDOM FROM 

NATURAL CATACLYSMS, STORMS AND PESTILENCES. 

5th. natural BEAUTY OF ENVIRONMENT, OFFERING SURPASSING OPPOR 
TUNITIES FOR HEALTH, PLEASURE AND HOME-BUILDING. 

Ally one of these items is suffitieiit to create a great and prosperous 
city and the map is full of jjlaces which exist solely by virtue of posses- 
sion of one or more of them. Some few fortunate places possess the com- 
bination and these ure invariably listed among the great cities of the 
world. The entire number in the highest measure of superiority may 
unquestionably be credited to the city of Norfolk. 

UNLESS ALL SIGNS FAIL, BY I9I5 NORFOLK WILL BE A SPLENDID CITY WITH 
A QUARTER OF A MILLION INHABITANTS, AND THIS ACCRESCENCE WILL EMBODY 
NO SPASMODIC GROWTH, BOOM OR INFLATION, BUT WILL REPRESENT THE SAFE, 
SANE AND LEGITIMATE ADVANCEMENT OF A CITY MARCHING WITH GIANT STRIDES 
TO TAKE ITS PLACE AMONG THE GREATER MUNICIPALITIES OF THE NATION. 

80 



LbAp'l2 



\ 



